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The craic was ninety on Bloomsday in Dublin: narrowly beaten only by the number of “yeses” in Molly Bloom’s soliloquy which, as all James Joyce scholars will know, is 91. As always, that was one of the more popular extracts from Ulysses in public readings around the city, nowhere more so than in Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square, where Marian Keyes performed the part. But among the €25 T-shirts for sale at the James Joyce Centre, the ones reading “Stately Plump Buck Mulligan” had sold out before noon.

By contrast, you could still buy “And yes I said yes I will yes” in multiple sizes, perhaps because it’s not the sort of message you’d want to wear in a nightclub. READ MORE How Dublin City Council’s new anti-migrant councillors will complicate the business of local government Brianna Parkins: I’m leaving Ireland. I don’t have the energy for life here The murder of Katie Simpson: The full story Dublin taxi driver found guilty of raping two female passengers This year’s Bloomsday was notable for the relative absence in the “Hibernian metropolis” of academics.



Those are mostly in Glasgow, where the biennial Joyce Symposium — “the Joycean Olympics” — is taking place. By comparison, the Dublin Bloomsday was more like the Community Games, with the emphasis on taking part (in fancy dress where possible) and having fun. Still, even Joyce’s casual fans take their responsibility seriously.

Among those in period dress at the James Joyce Centre, .

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